Botanizing Plymouth while there to lecture or preach --a true lichen day.

 

February 22.

February 22, 2022

Went to Plymouth to lecture or preach all day. 

Bæomyces roseus (Baiós, small, and múkys, a fungus ).

Saw in Plymouth, near Billington Sea, the Prinos glaber, or evergreen winterberry. It must be the same with the black-berried bush behind Provincetown.

A mild, misty day.

The red (?) oaks about Billington Sea fringed with usneas, which in this damp air appear in perfection. The trunks and main stems of the trees have, as it were, suddenly leaved out in the winter, — a very lively light green, — and these ringlets and ends of usnea are so expanded and puffed out with light and life, with their reddish or rosaceous fruit, it is a true lichen day.

They take the place of leaves in the winter. The clusters dripping with moisture, expanded as it were by electricity, sometimes completely investing the stem of the tree.

I understood that there were two only of the sixth generation from the Pilgrims still alive (in Plymouth?).

Every man will take such views as he can afford to take. Views one would think were the most expensive guests to entertain.

I perceive that the reason my neighbor cannot entertain certain views is the narrow limit within which he is obliged to live, on account of the smallness of his means. His instinct tells him that it will not do to relax his hold here and take hold where he cannot keep hold.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 22, 1852

Went to Plymouth to lecture or preach.  Benjamin Marston Watson established a series of Sunday lectures in Plymouth to provide an alternative venue for those who did not go to church. Thoreau read his "Life in the Woods" lecture twice on February 22; once at 10:00 am and again at 7:00 pm. Richard Smith February 22, 2021. See also October 7, 1854 ("Went to Plymouth to lecture and survey Watson's grounds.”);February 22, 1859 (“Go to Worcester to lecture in a parlor.”)  

Bæomyces roseus.  See April 3, 1859 ("We need a popular name for the baeomyces. C. suggests "pink mould" Perhaps "pink shot" or "eggs" would do.”)

The Prinos glaber, or evergreen winterberry [aka"Ilex glabra"]. See December 28, 1852 ("The berries that hold on into winter are to be remarked, — the winterberry, alder and birch fruit, smilax, pyrus, hips, etc") Compare September 5, 1858 ("Prinos verticillatus berries reddening."); October 2, 1856 (“The prinos berries are in their prime.. . . They are now very fresh and bright, and what adds to their effect is the perfect freshness and greenness of the leaves amid which they are seen.”)

The fresh bright scarlet

prinos berries seen in prime

amid fresh green leaves.

October 2, 1856

Red oaks fringed with usneas. See Walden (" All day the sun has shone on the surface of some savage swamp, where the single spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath”)

Usnea are so expanded and puffed out with light and life, with their reddish or rosaceous fruit, it is a true lichen day. See December 31, 1851 ("Nature has a day for each of her creatures, her creations. To-day it is an exhibition of lichens at Forest Hall.”); January 26, 1852 ("The lichens look rather bright to-day, . . .The beauty of lichens, with their scalloped leaves, the small attractive fields, the crinkled edge! I could study a single piece of bark for hour.”); February 5, 1853 ("It is a lichen day. . . . All the world seems a great lichen and to grow like one to-day, - a sudden humid growth.”)